My friend William is retiring in October. It’s been a 44-year run for this small-business owner.

Like many an American, he’d dreamed of retirement, but never thought it would come. But it’s here, and it’s surreal. His only priority now is dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s of his plan that’s been in the works for decades. This is the behind-the-scenes look.

Not knowing where to start isn’t a unique state of being for a person sitting in front of a 1,000-piece puzzle. Even when you’ve planned meticulously for your assets and passive income streams to sustain you forever, the final preparations can be absolutely daunting.

William had a ton of moving pieces, but his finalization plan consisted of four essential elements: core income sources, a retirement budget, meetings with trusted advisers, and how he should structure the sale of his business to put the icing on his retirement cake.

At age 67, William’s core household income sources include Social Security, his wife’s Social Security, and income from annuities he purchased years ago. After taxes, all of this comes to roughly $4,600 per month.

It’s worth noting, in the event of either his or his wife’s death, the household income amount would only dip by the amount of his wife’s current Social Security benefit. Because if he dies first, she’s allowed to receive his monthly Social Security benefit, instead of hers. This a brutally important feature of Social Security which protects widows and widowers. Additionally, William made sure his annuity income had a spousal benefit. In other words, when he dies, his wife will continue to receive the annuity income.

When purchasing an annuity, make sure the annuity still benefits your household if you die. If you don’t, the insurance company keeps the money, and your spouse is left wondering why you didn’t think of that. OK, I’m downplaying your spouse’s reaction. You will potentially ruin the rest of your spouse’s financial life. There.

As far as a retirement budget went, William had made that task tremendously easy on himself years ago. He and his wife stopped increasing their lifestyle as their income increased, which is half the battle. Instead of needing an ever-increasing amount of money heading toward a period of time in which less income would be available, William and his wife only required a reasonable amount, relative to his current work income.

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Although his mortgage wouldn’t be paid off when he retired, the payment was built comfortably into his retirement budget. So much so, that he was actually paying an extra $1,000 per month on it right now, as a working person. The soon-to-be retired couple’s plan is pretty simple: Stop paying $1,000 extra on their mortgage once they retire.

Most people only retire once; that’s the plan anyway. William realized this and refused to let an unforeseen mistake cause him to un-retire, then re-retire at some undefined point in the future. He set up meetings with at least three financial experts — and asked those professionals to poke holes in his plans. They tried. They couldn’t.

The dream of nearly every business owner is to sell their business someday. However, it’s rarely a clean process. And even if it is clean, there’s no guarantee the sale will result in millions of dollars of proceeds.

William, at the advice of his advisers, decided to take a cash and multiyear payment deal. He’ll invest the cash, and use the multiyear payout as a runway to grow the cash. Without a doubt, the business sale proceeds are something the average American doesn’t have in their back pocket. But then again the average American doesn’t necessarily take on the risk of owning a business, either. It’s a classic risk/reward bet, and his risks led to commensurate rewards.

William needs roughly $5,700 per month in retirement to live the life he wants to live. His core sources of income will account for 80 percent of that. The income generated from the sale of his business will easily close the gap, and he’ll still have hundreds of thousands of dollars in the bank.

You may not have the same numbers as William, but you certainly will have the same opportunity to make the final pieces fit together. Start with your core sources of income, move quickly to examining your budget, consult multiple advisers, and see how your other assets can create supplemental income.

The only task William has left over the next few months is figuring out what he’s going to do with 168 hours per week of free time for the rest of his life.

The scary part? That might just be the hardest part.

Have a question for Pete the Planner? Email him at AskPete@petetheplanner.com or visit petetheplanner.com.

How to watch: Tune in to Pete the Planner, who also is Fox59’s personal finance expert, at 8:15 a.m. Wednesdays.